Real-time messaging platform with enhanced privacy

ABSTRACT

A real-time messaging system platform receives from, a communication application installed on a first user communication device, a first user identifier, an indication that a messaging service message composed by the first user is being directed to a first destination associated with a second user, and an identification of data present in the messaging service message. The identification of the data and a message transmission history of the first user is used to enable selection of a message of a first entity. The selected message of the first entity is caused to be displayed by the communication application within a message framework that frames the first user messaging service message. The first entity message is caused to be included in the messaging service message transmitted to the second user device, wherein the first entity is not provided with access to the identity of the first user or the second user.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claimis identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the presentapplication are hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentand/or the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patentand Trademark Office patent file and/or records, but otherwise reservesall copyrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

Instant messaging, such as SMS or MMS messaging, has become anincreasingly important communication channel. However, conventionalapproaches fail to provide an adequate technical solution to providingidentity privacy, particularly in group messaging. Further, conventionalapproaches to group chats may unduly load messaging infrastructure.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects inorder to provide a basic understanding of such aspects. This summary isnot an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects, and is intendedto neither identify key or critical elements of all aspects nordelineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is topresent some concepts of one or more aspects in a simplified form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a real-time messagingplatform and method configured to enable at least two users to conductan instant messaging session (including one or more messages), whileenabling a third party to provide messaging content for the messagingsession without requiring either of the two users to add the third partyto the messaging session. Thus, a third party message may beautomatically added to a message being sent from a first user to seconduser. The third party may be inhibited from accessing the identifies orphone numbers of the two users.

Advantageously, by embedding a third-party message into a two-party (ormore than two party) messaging session, the number of individualmessages transmitted over the messaging infrastructure is reduced,thereby reducing stress and messaging infrastructure loading. Further,by embedding a third-party message into a messaging session, the numberof times the parties engaged in the messaging session need to accesstheir communication devices to view messages is reduced, saving usertime and effort. In addition, because the number of separate messages isreduced, the messaging conversation may be performed faster. Yetfurther, when a third party message is presented in the same messageoutline as a message of a first of the other parties engaged in themessaging conversation, the total amount of display space on the firstand second parties' communication devices needed to display the thirdparty's and other party's messages is reduced. Still further, a two-waymessaging session is transformed into a three-way messaging conversationwithout requiring the parties in the messaging conversation to set up athree party messaging group. Additionally, a three party messagingsession may be performed (including the third party message(s)), wherenone of the participants needs to enter or know the addresses (e.g.,telephone numbers) of all three participants, reducing the time neededto enter addresses (e.g., mobile phone numbers) into a call list toestablish a group messaging session, and reducing the amount of memoryutilized on a user device to store such addresses.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a real-time messagingsystem platform receiving, from a communication application installed ona first user communication device, a first user identifier, anindication that a messaging service message composed by the first useris being directed to a first destination associated with a second user,and an identification of keywords present in the messaging servicemessage. The identification of the keywords and a message transmissionhistory of the first user is used to enable selection of a message of afirst entity. The selected message of the first entity is caused to bedisplayed by the communication application within a message frameworkthat frames the first user messaging service message. The first entitymessage is caused to be included in the messaging service messagetransmitted to the second user device, wherein the first entity is notprovided with access to the identity of the first user or the seconduser.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a communication systemcomprising: a network interface; at least one computing device; anon-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executableinstructions stored thereon that, if executed by the at least onecomputing device, cause the at least one computing device to performoperations comprising: receiving over the network interface from acommunication application installed on a first communication device of afirst user: an identifier associated with the first user and/or anidentifier associated with the communication application installed onthe first communication device; an indication that a messaging servicemessage composed by the first user is being directed to a firstelectronic destination associated with a second user; an identificationof keywords present in the messaging service message composed by thefirst user; accessing a record associated with the first user using theidentifier associated with the first user and/or the identifierassociated with the communication application installed on the firstcommunication device, wherein the record associated with the first usercomprises a message transmission history of the first user; based atleast in part on the identification of keywords present in the messagingservice message composed by the first user and on the messagetransmission history of the first user, enabling selection of a messageof a first entity; causing the selected message of the first entity to:be displayed by the communication application installed on the firstcommunication device of the first user within a message framework thatalso frames the messaging service message composed by the first user;included in the messaging service message when the messaging servicemessage is transmitted to the second user, wherein the first entity isnot provided with access to the identity of the first user or the seconduser.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a computer implementedmethod of modifying a messaging service message, comprising: receivingat a mobile device of a first user, via an instantiation of a firstapplication installed on the mobile device of the first user, contentprovided by a content provider; detecting that the first user hasinstructed the first application installed on the mobile device of thefirst user to transmit a first messaging service message to a device ofa second user, the first messaging service message including a messagecomprising text entered by the first user, wherein the messagecomprising text entered by the first user does not include the contentfrom the content provider; determining if the first user hastransmitted, using the first application, a first threshold number ofmessaging service messages to the device of the second user; at leastpartly in response to determining that the first application hastransmitted the first threshold number of messaging service messagesfrom the first user to the device of the second user, causing, at leastin part, the first messaging service message to automatically includethe content from the content provider with the message entered by thefirst user within the same message graphical outline; and causing atleast in part, the content from the content provider to be displayed inassociation with the message entered by the first user when displayed onthe device of the second user.

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a system comprising: anetwork interface; at least one computing device; a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions storedthereon that, if executed by the at least one computing device, causethe at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:receiving over the network interface from a communication applicationinstalled on a first communication device of a first user: a firstidentifier; an indication that the first user has activated a messagetransmit control to cause a messaging service message composed by thefirst user to be transmitted to a first electronic destinationassociated with a second user; an identification of keywords present inthe messaging service message composed by the first user; accessing arecord associated with the first user, wherein the record associatedwith the first user comprises profile data associated with the firstuser; based at least in part on the identification of keywords presentin the messaging service message composed by the first user and on therecord associated with the first user, enabling selection of a messageof a first entity; causing the selected message of the first entity to:be displayed by the communication application installed on the firstcommunication device of the first user together with the messagingservice message composed by the first user, and to be included in themessaging service message when the messaging service message istransmitted to the second user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawingssummarized below. Throughout the drawings, reference numbers may bere-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements. Thedrawings are provided to illustrate example embodiments described hereinand are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example environment which may be used inperforming real-time messaging.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example real-time messaging platform.

FIG. 1C illustrates an example user system.

FIGS. 1D1-1D2 illustrates an example messaging process.

FIG. 1E illustrates an example message monitoring process.

FIG. 2 illustrates another example messaging process.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example messaging process.

FIGS. 4-14 illustrate example messaging interfaces.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As discussed above, instant messaging, such as SMS or MMS messaging, hasbecome an increasingly important communication channel. However,conventional approaches fail to provide an adequate technical solutionto providing identity privacy, particular in group messaging. Further,conventional approaches to group chats may unduly load messaginginfrastructure.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for overcoming some or all ofthe foregoing disadvantages of conventional technologies. An aspect ofthe present disclosure relates to a real-time messaging platform andmethods configured to enable two (or more) users to conduct an instantmessaging session (including one or more messages), while enabling athird party to provide messaging content to be included in one or moreof the messages between the two or more users. The systems and methodsdisclosed herein optionally provide some or all of the followingadvantages.

Advantageously, by embedding a third-party message into a two-party (ormore than two party) messaging conversation (e.g., a text chat), thenumber of individual messages transmitted over the messaginginfrastructure is reduced, thereby reducing stress and messaginginfrastructure loading. Further, by embedding a third-party message intoa messaging conversation, the number of times the parties engaged in themessaging conversations need to access their communication devices toview messages is reduced.

In addition, because the number of separate messages is reduced, themessaging conversation may be performed faster. Yet further, when athird party message is presented in the same message outline as amessage of one of the other parties engaged in the messagingconversation, the total amount of display space on the party'scommunication device needed to display the third party's and otherparty's messages is reduced. Further, a two-way messaging conversationis transformed into a three-way messaging conversation without the needthe parties in the messaging conversation to set up a three partymessaging group. Additionally, a three party messaging conversation maybe performed (including the third party message(s)), where none of theparticipants needs to enter or know the addresses (e.g., telephonenumbers) of all three participants, reducing the time needed to enteraddresses (e.g., mobile phone numbers) into a call list to establish agroup messaging (chat) conversation, and reducing the amount of memoryutilized on a user device to store such addresses.

Further, a third party message may be embedded into a user message,while preserving the privacy of the two (or more) people involved in amessage communication (e.g., a text chat) as well as that of a thirdparty whose message(s) are being embedded into one of the two or morepeoples' messages. For example, the two (or more) people involved in amessage communication need not be provided with access to a cell phonenumber of the third party, and the third party does not need the cellphone numbers of the two people involved in the message communication.Yet, the third party can still provide messages to the two (or more)people as part of the message communication conducted via the cellphones (or other communication devices) of the two people involved inthe message communication.

For example, as will be described in greater detail herein, a user mayenter a message (e.g., a text message, a graphic message (e.g., emoji,sticker, etc.), an image message (e.g., a still image, video, GIF,screen effect, etc.), an audio, message, or combination of two or moreof the foregoing) via a user interface. The message may include a link(e.g., a URL) to a network resource such as a webpage or other document,such that when the user interacts with the content (e.g., clicks on,touches, points at, or otherwise interacts with the content), thenetwork resource is accessed. If the network resource comprises stillfurther content, the content may be displayed by the user device.

The user may also identify one or more message recipients (e.g., byentering a name, phone number, email address, or other destinationidentifier, or by selecting a recipient from a contact database definedby the user, or via a menu). The user interface may be generated via acommunication application hosted on a user device. Optionally, a userinterface may be provided requesting permission for the communicationapplication to access the user's contact database. In response to theuser granting such permission, the communication application may providethe user with access to the contact database (via a contact selectionuser interface) when selecting message recipients. The communicationapplication may optionally enable the user to define a communicationsgroup and to select/enter the members of the group for futurecommunications. Optionally, a user interface may be provided by thecommunication application requesting permission for the communicationapplication to access the user's camera. In response to the usergranting such permission to access the camera, the communicationapplication may enable the user take photographs/videos using the camerafor inclusion in messages to other users. Optionally, a user interfacemay be provided requesting permission for the communication applicationto access the user's image data store (e.g., photo roll). In response tothe user granting such permission to access the image data store, thecommunication application may enable the user to select images from theimage data store for inclusion in messages to other users. Optionally, auser interface may be provided enabling the user to select emojis from alibrary of emojis for inclusion in messages to other users.

The user device may be mobile communication device (e.g., a smart phone,tablet computer, laptop, etc.) or a non-mobile communication device(e.g., a desktop computer, a distributed computer system, a smarttelevision, etc.). The communication application may be pre-installed onthe user device or may be downloaded over a network from a remote system(e.g., via an app store or otherwise).

As the user is entering the message or after the user has activated amessage transmission control, the application parses the user enteredmessage to determine an indication as to the message content.

For example, if the user message includes text, the message may beparsed to identify words and/or multiword phrases. The words and/orphrases may be compared to a dictionary of keywords and/or multiwordphrases and matches may be identified. They keywords or phrases may beassociated with certain subject matter and/or third party content. Thus,for example, the identified matches may be utilized to determine subjectmatter and/or third party content relevant to the user entered message.The matching keywords/phrases may be wirelessly transmitted from theuser device (e.g., via a cellular network, via a WiFi network,Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc.) to a remote system (a real-time messagingplatform that provides enhanced privacy with respect to third partycommunications). However, optionally, the entire message is nottransmitted to the remote system to better enhance user privacy. Forexample, although keywords (or representative indicators) may betransmitted to the remote system, other text (e.g., proper names,addresses, phone numbers, other text that may not be useful orsufficiently useful is selecting relevant messages, and/or the like) maynot be transmitted to the remote system.

If the message includes an image, an image analysis system may be usedto determine the image subject matter. For example, the user device orremote system may access a third party system having pre-trained models(e.g., convolution neural network models) via an application programminginterface (API), pass the image to the third party system, and receivethe analysis. Optionally, instead, the remote system may host the visionmodels and perform the analysis. Optionally, a histogram-orientedgradient feature extraction algorithm may be used to identify objects inthe image.

If the image includes a text image, optionally optical characterrecognition is performed to translate the text image to text. The textmay be used to determine the image subject matter as similarly discussedabove with respect to text messages.

In addition, optionally the application hosted on the user device mayalso access location data from the user device (e.g., GPS data, WiFidata, cell phone triangulation data, etc.) using corresponding queriesto the user device. The application may transmit the location data tothe remote system for use in providing geolocation-related servicesand/or enhancements.

The remote system and/or the user device may store profile dataassociated with users. For example, the profile data may includedemographic data (e.g., age/generation, gender, income, marital status,education, homeownership/renting, geographical location, etc.),historical user interactions with content, the number of messages sentby and/or received by a user, and/or other information. If the userdevice stores the profile data, then optionally remote system may accessthe user profile data from the user device when the user profile data isneeded.

Corresponding third party messages/content items may be selected fromone or more local or remote data stores. A third party message/contentitem may be selected based on the identified match, using profileinformation of the user composing the message and/or the profileinformation of the identified recipient, and/or the current locationinformation. Optionally, the remote system may transmit over a networksome or all of the information received from the communicationapplication hosted on the user device to one or more content providersystems, optionally in conjunction with some or all of the user profileinformation (optionally, while inhibiting the provision of user names,phone numbers, email addresses, or other personally identifyinginformation). One or more content providers may then request that theirmessage/content item be inserted into the message from the user to theidentified recipient. The message/content item may be selected by theremote system from that stored by the content provider systems. Themessage/content item may be, for example, news content, weatherinformation content, product data content, service data content,advertising, and/or other message/content item. Optionally, a differentmessage/content item may be selected for and provided to the messageinterface of the user composing the message and to the identifiedmessage recipient.

The remote system may optionally transmit the actual selectedmessage/content item to the communication application hosted on the userdevice, may transmit a link (e.g., a Uniform Resource Locator) to thecommunication application, and/or may transmit an identifier associatedwith an item of content previously stored on the user device.

Optionally, the remote system may only select and transmitmessage/content item to the application hosted on the user device upon adetermination that certain pre-specified criteria are met. For example,the criteria may indicate that third party messages/content items shouldonly be included in a given user's messages periodically (e.g., everymessage, every third message, every fifth message), and/or at certaintimes of day (e.g., between 7 AM-9 AM, 12 PM-1 PM, 6 PM-11 PM), and/oron certain days (e.g., only weekdays, only weekends, only Fridays, onlyMondays, etc.), and/or only in messages that are directed to recipientsthat meet certain criteria.

If the application receives a link from the remote system, thecommunication application may access the message/content item using thelink and display the accessed message/content item on the user devicetogether with the user message. If the application receives the actualmessage/content item, then the communication application may display thereceived message/content item on the user device together with the usermessage (optionally with a delimiter, such as a solid or dashed linethere between, or presented using different background colors). If thecommunication application receives an identifier associated with an itemof content previously stored on the user device, the application may usethe identifier to access the corresponding content from local userdevice memory, and display content on the user device together with theuser message.

For example, the message and the content may be displayed within thesame message outline, sometimes referred to herein as a messageframework (e.g., a message bubble demarcation outline). By way ofillustration, the message outline may be an oval, a circle, or arectangle or other polygon. The communication application may optionallydynamically size and/or shape the message outline based at least in parton the size (e.g., in pixels) and/or dimensions of the content. Theapplication may optionally color the message outline and/or thebackground to the message to indicate that the message is beingtransmitted (as opposed to received). Optionally, the communicationapplication may color the message outline and/or the background to themessage in response to a color request by the content provider.Optionally, the message and content are displayed without an outline.Advantageously, the communication application may position the contentbelow the user message to ensure that the user message (which may be ofhigher user interest as compared to the content) is visible first whenviewed by the user composing the message and/or the user receiving themessage. Optionally, the content provider may specify the position ofthe content, and the content may be presented accordingly by thecommunication application, thereby providing fine-tuned control over thecontent placement. Optionally, the content may be displayed at otherlocations (e.g., on the left side of, the right side of, below, orsurrounding the user message). Optionally, the content is displayedoutside the message outline. Optionally, no message outline isdisplayed.

The message may be transmitted by the application to the designateddestination. Optionally, the message does not traverse the remotesystem. Instead, the message may be transmitted via one or more thirdparty existing messaging systems (e.g., a carrier SMS (short messageservice, such as is defined in TS 23.040 or TS 23.041)/MMS (multimediamessaging service) messaging system). For example, the messaging systemmay be a stateless messaging system. The message communication may behandled using a short message service center (SMSC) providing a storeand forward mechanism. The SMSC may determine, via a handshaking signalfrom the receiving device, whether the receiving device is reachable orreceived the message. If the receiving device is not reachable or didnot receive the message, the SMSC may queue the message, and laterattempt to transmit the message again. A failure indication may betransmitted to the user device indicating the failure of the messagedelivery. The application may display a corresponding message deliveryfailure indication to the user and/or to the remote system. The remotesystem may monitor and generate reports of failure deliveries. Theremote system may optionally communicate the delivery failure to thecontent provider. If the message, including the third partymessage/content is successfully transmitted to the receiving device, acorresponding indication may be recorded. As will be discussed herein,the user may receive tokens/points for such successful transmission,where such tokens/points may be utilized to receive or access products,services, credits, and/or the like.

If the receiving device does not host an iteration of the application,the receiving device may still receive the message with the third partycontent using its native messaging application. However, certainfunctionality, such as control over the message outline may reside withthe receiving device's native messaging application.

The term, SMS, has used herein is intended to encompass MMS and InternetProtocol-based messaging services, such as APPLE IMESSAGE, FACEBOOKMESSENGER, ANDROID MESSAGE, and other such messaging applications,unless the context explicitly indicates otherwise.

Certain aspects will now be discussed with reference to the figures.

Referring to FIG. 1A, the real-time messaging platform 114A may comprisea hosted computing environment that includes a collection of physicalcomputing resources that may be remotely accessible and may be rapidlyprovisioned as needed (sometimes referred to as a “cloud” computingenvironment). The real-time messaging platform 114A may also include adata store. The data store is optionally a hosted storage environmentthat includes a collection of physical data storage devices that may beremotely accessible and may be rapidly provisioned as needed (sometimesreferred to as “cloud” storage).

The plurality of user systems 104A-1 . . . 104A-N and 106A-1 . . .106A-N may include standalone computers (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablet,smart phone, or other computer device), a centralized computer system,or a cloud computing system. The user systems 104A-1 . . . 104A-N may beassociated with users that initiate messages to recipients (e.g., textmessages, graphic messages, video messages, etc., via short ormultimedia messaging service), and user systems 106A-1 . . . 106A-N maybe associated with users that receive messages initiated by the users ofthe user systems 104A-1 . . . 104A-N. Of course a given user may be amessage initiator and a message recipient.

The messages transmitted between 104A-1 . . . 104A-N and 106A-1 . . .106A-N may be routed via a messaging gateway system 112A. For example,as similarly discussed above, the messaging gateway system 112A mayoptionally be a third party messaging system (e.g., a carrier SMS (shortmessage service)/MMS (multimedia messaging service) messaging system).The message communication may be handled using a short message servicecenter (SMSC) providing a store and forward mechanism.

Third party messages/content items (e.g., text, graphic, still image,video image, audio, and/or other content) may be hosted and provided viaone or more content systems 110A-1 . . . 110A-N (some or all of whichmay be third party message/content provider systems, such as ad networksystems). Optionally, where the third party message/content includesplayable content (e.g., video content, animations, audio content, and/orthe like), the content may be configured to be automatically played on auser device 104 or 106, without a user needing to activate a playcontrol or link. As discussed elsewhere herein, the real-time messagingplatform 114A may select messages/content items from the one or morecontent systems 110A-1 . . . 110A-N and/or enable the one or morecontent systems 110A-1 . . . 110A-N to request that theirmessages/content items be included in messages between user systems104A-1 . . . 104A-N and user systems 106A-1 . . . 106A-N.

The various systems illustrated in FIG. 1A may communicate over one ormore wired and/or wireless networks 102A. For example, the network(s)102A may include a cellular network, a WiFi network, the Internet, anintranet, and/or other networks.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example real-time messaging platform 114A ingreater detail. The real-time messaging platform 114A includes some orall of the following: a communication monitor service module 102B, acommunication parsing service module 104B, a message/content selectionservice module 106B, a message/content messaging insertion servicemodule 108B, a message/content interaction monitoring service module110B, a processing unit 112B (configured to execute programs to performoperations described herein), one or more Application ProgrammingInterfaces (APIs) 114B, and a network interface 116B (used tocommunicate with user systems 104A-1 . . . 104A-N, user systems 106A-1 .. . 106A-N, content systems 110A-1 . . . 110A-N, and/or other systems).

In addition, the example real-time messaging platform 114A includes adata store 100B. The data store 100B may include one or more databasesthat store user profile data 220B, content/messages 222B (to be insertedinto user messages), user content/message interaction tracking data223B, message/content provider and/or user account records 224B (e.g.,storing the user's mobile phone number, email address, preferences,rewards points/tokens, number of messages transmitted by the user viathe communication application, and/or other user data described herein),and/or one or more software programs 226B which may be executed by theprocessing unit (which may include one or more centralized ordistributed computing devices). Keyword dictionaries 228B may includeone or more keyword dictionaries used to identify or determine the topicof a user message. Optionally, the data store 100B may also store a userprofile. The keywords in the keyword dictionaries 228B may beperiodically synchronized with keyword dictionaries stored on usersystems 104A, 106A based on timing and/or detected updates that add orremove keywords. For example, version numbers or dates associated withthe keyword dictionaries stored on user systems 104A, 106A, and if theversion numbers or dates indicate that the keyword dictionaries storedon user systems 104A, 106A are out of date, the keywords in the keyworddictionaries 228B may be synchronized with the keyword dictionariesstored on user systems 104A, 106A.

The communication monitor service module 1028 may be used to detect whena user of a user system 104A is initiating a message communication. Forexample, a messaging application hosted on the user system 104A maydetect when a user is entering a message into a message field and/oractivated a transmit control, and the messaging application hosted onthe user system 104A may transmit a corresponding notification over thenetwork 102 to the communication monitor service module 102B. Asdescribed elsewhere herein, in response to such message initiationnotification, the monitor service module 102B may initiate a third partymessage/content insertion process. Optionally, the communication monitorservice module 1028 may receive from the user system 104A anidentification of the recipient user (e.g., the recipient user phonenumber, unique UserID, etc.).

The communication parsing service 104B may receive and analyze datareceived from the messaging application hosted on the user system 104Arelated to the content included in the user-entered message. Forexample, the analyzed data received from the messaging applicationhosted on the user system 104A may include words/phrases (or identifierscorresponding thereto) that match those words/phrases in a keyworddictionary accessed by the messaging application hosted on the usersystem 104A.

The message/content selection service module 106B may enable theselection of a message/content item that is to be inserted into themessage entered by the user of the user system 104A. For example, thekeywords/phrases identified in the user initiated message may becompared to metadata (e.g., tags) associated with content. More than oneword/phrase may match more than one item of metadata associated with athird party message/content item. The message/content item whosemetadata most closely that of the user message keywords/phrases may beselection for insertion into the user message.

Other factors may be taken into account in selecting a third partymessage/content item (e.g., user message/content preferences,message/content size, etc.). Optionally, different keyword matches maybe weighted differently. For example, a keyword that is more likely toindicate the subject matter of the user message and/or the user'sinterest in a given subject may be weighted more heavily in selectingmessage/content, than keywords that are relatively less likely toindicate the subject matter of the user message and/or the user'sinterest in a given subject. By of example, the use of the phrase “twinscroll turbocharger” may indicate more familiarity with and greaterinterest in engines and turbocharges as compared to the phrase“turbocharger”. Optionally, in addition to or instead of using thekeyword matches to select the message/content, user profile informationmay be utilized in selecting the message/content. For example, a user'shistorical user interactions with message/content, expressly providedinterests (e.g., provided via a user interface form), the number ofmessages sent by and/or received by a user, and/or other information maybe used to determine the user's interests and/or preferences and/or maybe used to determine whether the user matches criteria specified by amessage/content provider. In addition, the current time of day and/orday of the week may be used in selecting a third party message/contentitem.

Optionally, the message/content selection service module 106B may selecta different message/content item for the user composing the message andfor the identified recipient of the message. For example, the profile ofthe user composing the message and/or the keyword matches may be used inselecting a message/content item for the composing user, and (where therecipient identifier is known and a profile exists for the recipient)the profile of the recipient receiving the message and/or the keywordmatches may be used in selecting a message/content item for therecipient user.

The message/content messaging insertion service module 108B may causethe selected message/content to be transmitted to the communicationapplication on the user system 104A and/or the recipient system 106A.The communication application on user system 104A and/or on therecipient system 106A may then insert the selected message/content intothe message outline (e.g., below the original user's message).

User interaction with the inserted message/content may be monitored bythe message/content interaction monitoring service module 110B. Forexample, if a link is associated with the inserted third partymessage/content, the application may detect that a user has activatedthe link and has been navigated to the linked-to website or otherresource. The application may then report the interaction to theinteraction monitoring service module 110B each time such detection ismade or periodically (e.g., once an hour, once a day, etc., where thereport may include interactions detected since the last report). By wayof further example, if the third party message/content includes videoand/or audio content, the application may detect that a user hasinitiated the playing of the content (e.g., by tapping on the content oran associated play/volume control), and may transmit a correspondingindication to the interaction monitoring service module 110B. By way ofyet further example, activation of a link associated with an insertedthird party message/content item may cause a resource hosted by thereal-time messaging platform 114A, which may in response record anindication that the user has interacted with the insertedmessage/content. As discussed elsewhere herein, such detectedmessage/content interactions may be stored (e.g., in data store 100B)and used to generate analysis and reports as to user interests,message/content popularity, and/or other data.

The profile data 220B may include user demographic data (e.g.,age/generation, gender, income, marital status, education,homeownership/renting, geographical location, etc.), a record of userinteractions with inserted message/content (e.g., third partymessages/content inserted into messages sent by the user, interactionswith inserted third party messages/content received by the user), usersubject matter preferences expressly provided by the user (e.g., via auser preference user interface which lists subject matters that the usercan select as being of interest or of no interest), and/or inferred usersubject matter preferences (e.g., inferred using a determination as towhich content the user has and has not interacted with).

The message/content data 222B may include message/content items that maybe selected for insertion into user messages. The storedmessages/content may include default content or messages to be displayedif third parties have not requested that their content or messages beinserted into a given user's message. The message/content data 222B mayoptionally be thirty party messages/content that were cached (e.g.,during a time period when the network and/or system utilization isotherwise at a relatively low level), and which may then be laterselected for insertion into user messages.

The tracking data 223B may include individual and/or aggregated dataregarding user interactions with messages and/or content (e.g., whichcontent has been clicked on or played, and the number of time thatcontent has been clicked on or played), the number of user messagestransmitted and/or received using the communication application, and/orthe like. Account records 224B may include, for a given individual user,the tracking data discussed above, tokens/points received by the userfor the inclusion of third party messages/content into the user'smessages, redemption of token/points (e.g., to receive or accessproducts, services, credits, and/or the like), and/or other user data.

The APIs 1148 may be utilized to access or receive content from contentsystems 110A-1 . . . 110A-N. Different APIs may optionally be used fordifferent content systems.

FIG. 1C illustrates an example user system 104A (recipient system 106Amay have the same or similar architecture if it has a communicationapplication 102C installed thereon). The user system 104A may be amobile device (e.g., a smartphone, tablet computer, portable gamingdevice, media player, etc.), a desktop computer, smart television, orother device. The example user system 104A includes a communicationapplication 102C. The communication application 102C may bepre-installed on the user device 104A or may have been downloaded over anetwork via the network interface 114C from a remote system (e.g., viaan app store or otherwise). In this example, the communicationapplication 102C includes a keyword matching service module 104C, amessage insertion and outline module 106C, a message/content retrievalservice module 108C, and a message/content interaction monitoringservice module 110C.

A processing unit 1128 executes the communication application 102C andits various modules. A network interface 114C enables the user system104A to communicate with other systems and devices, such as thosedisclosed herein. The example user system 104A may also include adisplay (e.g., a touch display), speakers, a microphone (to receivevoice inputs, such as commands to voice messages), accelerometers, abattery, a keyboard, and/or the like.

A data store 100C may include preloaded messages/content 118C, a keyworddictionary 120C, tracking data 122C, and/or other data. The preloadedcontent 118C may have been previously selected based on user profiledata and/or content provider criteria as similarly discussed herein. Forexample, the preloaded messages/content 118C may be downloaded when itis detected that the network interface 114C is not being utilized abovea certain threshold. Advantageously, this technique ensures that thenetwork interface 114C and/or other components of the user system 104(e.g., the processing unit 112B) are not unduly loaded and so ensures amore responsive user system 104A. Thus, the user experience may beenhanced by downloading messages and content when the user system 104Aor components thereof are not being otherwise utilized or are not beingheavily utilized.

The data store 100C may also include a keyword dictionary 120C andtracking data 112C. Optionally, the keyword dictionary 120C may beincluded in the communication application 102C when downloaded to theuser device 104A. Optionally, the keyword dictionary 120C may beseparately downloaded from the real-time messaging platform 114A.Optionally, the keyword dictionary 120C may be periodically updated orupdated in response to a certain event (e.g., a corresponding update toa keyword dictionary stored on the real-time messaging platform 114A)via a synchronization process performed with the real-time messagingplatform 114A.

The keyword matching service module 104C may access a message entered orbeing entered by the user, compare the user message content (e.g., text)against the dictionary of keywords 120C, and identify matches. Thekeyword matching service module 104C may transmit the matching keywordsand/or associated identifiers to the real-time messaging platform 114A(optionally with the recipient identifier), which in turn can use thematching keywords to select third party messages/content to insert intothe user message. Optionally, the communication application 102C may usethe matching keywords to select a third party message/content from thepreloaded messages/content 118C.

The message insertion and outline module 106C may receive the selectedthird party message/content and insert the selected into the messageoutline. The message insertion and outline module 106C may determine thewidth and height of the message/content (e.g., in pixels) and/or fontsize (for text content) and use the size information to dynamicallyadjust the size of the message outline. The message insertion andoutline module 106C may also determine the placement of the third partymessage/content relative to the user message. For example, the thirdparty message/content may be positioned below the user message so thatthe user message may be viewed first and the user composing the messageor the message recipient does not have to scroll down to view theuser-composed message. Optionally, however, the third partymessage/content may be positioned above the user message so that thethird party message/content may be viewed first. The message insertionand outline module 106C may also set the shape (e.g., rectangle, oval,star, etc.) and/or color of the message outline based on shape and colormetadata stored with the third party message/content or in response to acommand received over a network from the content provider system or thereal-time messaging platform 114A.

The message/content retrieval service module 108C may be configured toretrieve locally or remotely stored content for insertion into a usermessage.

FIGS. 1D1-1D2 illustrates an example real-time process configured toinsert selected third party messages/content into a user message, whilepreserving the privacy of the two (or more) people involved in a messagecommunication (e.g., a text chat) as well as that of a third party whosemessage(s) are being embedded into one of the two or more peoples'messages. For example, the two (or more) people involved in a messagecommunication need not be provided with access to a cell phone number ofthe third party, and the third party does not need the cell phonenumbers of the two (or more) people involved in the messagecommunication. Yet, the third party can still provide messages to thetwo (or more) people as part of the message communication conducted viathe cell phones (or other communication devices) of the two (or more)people involved in the message communication. The illustrated process orportions thereof may be combined with other portions and blocks of otherprocess discussed herein.

At block 102D, a message initiation device (e.g., user system 104A)detects (e.g., using a communication application) that a user isinitiating a message. The detection may be performed when the useractivates a “new message” control to cause a message entry field to bepresented, begins actually entering a message (e.g., by typing text,starting a voice recording, starting a video recording, entering agraphic, and/or entering an emoji message) via a message editinginterface, enters/selects a recipient identifier (e.g., a phone number,user identifier, or otherwise), or activates a message transmissioncontrol (e.g., a “send” control).

At block 104D, a determination is made as to whether a third partymessage/content item is permitted to be inserted into the user message.For example, the user initiating the message may have indicated (e.g.,via a message insertion inhibition control provided via the user messageediting user interface) to inhibit the insertion of a third partymessage/content item into this particular user message. Optionally, theuser may have previously indicated, via a corresponding user interface,the no third party messages/content are to be included in messages tothe identified recipient. For example, a user may not want third partymessages/content included in any messages from the user to a businesscontact. Thus, the user may identify business contacts to whom thirdparty messages/content are not to be included. If the user has indicatedthat the recipient is not to have third party messages/content included,the process may end.

If the user has permitted (not prohibited) third party messages/contentto be inserted into the user message, the process may proceed.

At block 106D, the communication application on the message initiationdevice may parse the user message to determine the subject of orkeywords in the message. For example, if the message is a text message,the text message words/phrases may be compared to those in a keyworddictionary, and matches may be identified. The matching keywords (orcodes associated therewith) may be transmitted, at block 108D, to acommunication management & message integration system in associationwith an identifier associated with the application instantiated on themessage initiation device and/or an identifier associated with the userinitiating the message. If the message includes a graphic or image,metadata associated with the graphic or image may be compared to thekeyword dictionary, and the matching keywords (or codes associatedtherewith) may be transmitted to the communication management & messageintegration system.

At block 110D, the communication management & message integration systemreceives the keyword indications (e.g., the matching keywords, keywordcodes, or other indicators) from the message initiation device andreceives the identifier associated with the application instantiated onthe message initiation device and/or an identifier associated with theuser initiating the message. Optionally, the message initiation devicealso receives an indication as to the message recipient (e.g., phonenumber, or other recipient identifier) from the message initiationdevice.

At block 112D, the communication management & message integration systemaccesses from a profile data store a profile of the user initiating themessage and/or the profile of the recipient. The message initiatorprofile may be accessed via a database query using the applicationinstantiation identifier or the identifier associated with the userinitiating the message. The message recipient profile may be accessedvia a database query using the message recipient indicator. Optionally,if the user profile is stored on the message initiation device, the userprofile may be accessed from the message initiation device by thecommunication management & message integration system.

At block 114D, the communication management & message integration systemselects one or more third party messages/content items to insert intothe user message. For example, the matching keywords, message initiatorprofile, and/or the message recipient profile may be compared to data,such as third party message/content (or associated metadata), toidentify matching content. Optionally, if the message receiving devicehas an instantiation of the communication application installed thereon,a separate third party message/content may be selected for the messagerecipient. If there is more than one match, optionally themessage/content whose data most closely matches may be selected.

Other criteria may be used in performing the selection. For example, anindication may be stored in a user account for each third partymessage/content item that has previously been included in a givenmessage initiator message. Optionally, the system may inhibit theselection of third party messages/content items that may previously havebeen inserted into a message of the message initiator and/or of themessage recipient, even if such third party messages/content items maybe the most closely matching content/messages. Optionally, still othercriteria may be taken into account in selecting third partymessages/content items for inclusion into a user message. For example,third party content/message providers may offer tokens (e.g., a currencybid) to have their content/messages inserted into the messageinitiator's message, and the token amount may be taken into account inselecting the third party content/message.

At block 116D, the communication management & message integration systemenables the selected third party message/content item into the messageinitiator's message. For example, the communication management & messageintegration system may transmit the selected message/content or a link(e.g., a URL) thereto to the communication application on the messageinitiation device. If the message receiving device has an instantiationof the communication application installed thereon, the communicationmanagement & message integration system may transmit the third partymessage/content, or a link thereto, selected for the recipient to thecommunication application on the message initiation receiving device.

At block 118D, the message initiation device (using the communicationapplication) may access and render the received selected third partymessage/content. For example, if the message initiation device receiveda link to the third party message/content, the message initiation devicemay access the content over the network using the link.

At block 120D, the message initiation device may transmit the message,integrated with the third party message/content to the designatedrecipient. As noted above, optionally instead or in addition, thecommunication management & message integration system may transmitselected message/content or a link thereto to the message receivingdevice.

At block 122D, the message receiving device receives the integratedmessage. At block 124D, the message receiving device renders theintegrated message.

Optionally, because of the architecture described herein, the foregoingprocess may be completed in less than 4 seconds, or between 4 and 8seconds.

Optionally, the communication application on the message initiationdevice may enable a user to compose an MMS message (e.g., comprising avideo item or a banner item), which is transmitted as an SMS message(e.g., where a link to the video/banner rather than the video/banneritself is include in the SMS message), which may be converted back to anMMS by the message receiving device by the user clicking on or otherwiseselecting the link to thereby retrieve the video item. This techniqueacts as message compression, and may result in reduced data usage (andassociated costs) as video or banner content access (where video orbanner content is normally received as an MMS message) is provided via areceived SMS message rather than an MMS message.

FIG. 1E illustrates another example process according to an aspect ofthe present disclosure.

At block 10, a user has a communication application (e.g., a mobilecommunication application installed) installed on the user's device(e.g., a cell phone, other portable electronic device, a desktopcomputer, and/or other device).

In this example, the user is sent a series of questions which includequestions used to determine the background and other profile informationof the user so that the content to be obtained from the contentproviders (e., where the content providers may provide tokens to havetheir content placed) may be presented to suitable users so as tobenefit the content provider and the user. For example, the questionsmay be presented via a questionnaire on the user device via thecommunication application after the communication application has beendownloaded or otherwise installed on the user device. Optionally, inaddition or instead, a profile set-up user interface may be provided viaa webpage hosted by a website. The user may respond by providing some orall of the information discussed herein and/or other information whichmay then be stored.

As set forth in block 20, the user provides demographic information andcreates a profile.

Optionally, a user may be provided with tokens (e.g., financialpayments, credits, content, and/or other rewards) in exchange forpermitting third party messages/content to be included in the user'smessages. With respect to the content provider's portal block 100, thecontent provider may upload content to a server (e.g., a websiteserver), may upload or otherwise provide content providertokens/rewards, and select or otherwise specify the desired demographiccriteria and/or other profile information to improve the focus as towhere the content will be directed (e.g., to user's most receptive groupwho will want to acquire the content provider's products or services).Optionally, the content and/or the profile information is stored on theuser device (e.g., into the communication application) after the userprovides the information as set forth in block 20.

For example, as set forth in block 30, the profile may be installed onthe user's cell phone and may be accessible to the communicationapplication. Daily activity may be tracked and a daily activity reportmay be created by the communication application.

As set forth in block 40, the daily activity report provided by thecommunication application and is received by the website servers, thereport is checked for errors, and the user account is credited withtokens (e.g., based on the number and/or type of third partymessages/content included in the user's messages).

As set forth in block 150, a content provider report is created andtransmitted to the content provider portal.

As set forth in block 50, the user profile is accurately updated withpoints corresponding to the amount of points/tokens assigned to theuser.

As set forth in block 60, the user initiates a point redemption for aselected number of points.

As set forth in block 70, the user account is checked for errors andaccuracy and then the content provider receives a reward report 120.

As set forth in block 80, the user is provided items corresponding tothe redeemed points (e.g., gift certificates or other cards that areredeemable for merchandise from the content provider).

An aspect of the disclosure relates to enabling a user to register withthe host of the communication application and send text messages (asdefined above) through the user's portable electronic device withcontent tailored to the user (e.g., targeted content) after apredetermined number of text messages has been sent by the registereduser. After a threshold number of text messages has been sent by theregistered user, a framework, such as a bubble, will appear with thetargeted content appearing on the screen of the portable electronicdevice (e.g., immediately after the registered user hits the sendbutton). The selected content will be in the same bubble as previouslydiscussed. Since the registered user is looking at the portableelectronic device screen when text messaging, the registered user willimmediately see the targeted content. It is not required that thereceiver of the text message also be registered with the communicationapplication host. However, if the receiver of the text message is also aregistered user, a reply text message by the receiver converts thereceiver into a text message sender. Thus, the registered receiver mayhave a separate account which tracks the number of messages/replies sentby the receiver. After a threshold number of such messages have beensent by the receiver, content may be inserted into a message being sentby the receiver. Thus, a given registered user can send messages (someor all of which may include inserted third party content) to recipientsas desired. As set forth below, safeguards are optionally provided toprevent system abuse.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example text messaging sequence by a registereduser. FIG. 2 also illustrates a flowchart for a new message userinterface. In this example, the user logs in using the user's name andpassword. The user loads a new message screen, at block 200, onto theuser's portable device. If the user wishes to include an attachment tothe text message, the user may click an attach control at block 210 andmay select an image or video at block 220. If the attachment is animage, then at block 230, the image is processed and attached to thetext message. Alternatively, if the attachment is a video 240, then atblock 250, the video is processed and attached to the message. At block300, the user selects a contact (e.g., by clicking on a contact entry),and at block 310 the contact screen is loaded. The user then clicks asend control at block 400. The host records are checked at block 410 tobe certain the user is a registered user, and the message is sent to thehost server at block 420. The host server confirms whether content(e.g., an ad) of a content provider (e.g., an advertiser) should be sentat block 430 (if the receiver is also a registered user) or at block430A (if the receiver is not a registered user). In one path, the user'spreference are checked at block 440, an appropriate content item isselected from a current list of content items using preferences of theuser at block 450, the content is embedded to a text message at block470, and the message (with the embedded content) is relayed to thereceiver's client at block 480. In a parallel path, after the contentitem is embedded to a text message at block 470, the message is sentthrough (e.g., using a built-in Android or iOS messaging application, orother third party messaging application) at block 490.

Referring to FIG. 3, a verification process may be performed to ensurethat the user actually sent the message. For example, at block 500, theprocess may query the user as to whether the user sent the text message.The process then checks as to whether the contact/recipient device isconfigured to receive the content item or whether the content item isblocked. If the answer is “No” (the content item is blocked), then atblock 520, the user message is sent without the content item from thecontent provider. On the other branch of the tree, if the answer is“Yes,” (the contact/recipient device is configured to receive thecontent item) then the communication application determines, at block510, whether the user received at least a threshold number (e.g., two(2) messages) from the contact, and if so, at block 503 the selectedcontent is loaded from the content list. At block 540, the content isembedded in the outgoing message with an outline delimiter for thecontent. At block 550, the user message is transmitted with the selectedcontent embedded. If the message transmission fails, the transmissionmay be attempted a predetermined number of times (e.g., three times).If, after the predetermined number of attempts, the message transmissionhas not succeeded, then the system marks the message delivery as failedat block 560. If, at block 570, a determination is made that the messagehas been delivered, at block 580 the user is assigned a correspondingnumber of points for the delivered message.

If the message was successfully delivered, then the text message andcontent provider content/message are visible together in a framework asillustrated in the examples of FIGS. 4 through 6. FIG. 4 is anillustration of a user text message 600 and content providercontent/message 610 in a message bubble 620. FIG. 5 is an illustrationof a user text message 630 and content provider content/message 640within a message rectangle 650. FIG. 6 is an illustration of a user textmessage 660 and content provider content/message 670 within a messagehexagon 680. FIG. 7 is an illustration of a user text message 700 withcontent provider content/message 710 positioned below the user textmessage 700, where there is not message framework/outline around theuser text message 700 and the content provider content/message 710.

In an example optional process, after logging on (e.g., by inputting theregistered user's name and password), the user signs up and receives anddownloads the communication application to the user device. When theuser is asked to register and create an account, the user may providecertain information via the user's device, which may in turn betransmitted to a webserver. Such information may include the mobilenumber of the user. The user may request or indicate that the user wouldlike to provide additional information (e.g., content preferences). Theemail address of the user may also be transmitted to the webserver. Theuser creates may create a user password so that only the user will beable to access the user's account. The user may provide demographicinformation, such as gender and the country where the user resides, andthe user's zip/postal code or the like.

The user may be provided with additional rewards and bonus points if theuser is willing to provide certain other sensitive information (e.g.,which many users may not be inclined to give out initially). A user maybecome accustomed to the system and processes disclosed herein, and willbetter come to understand that the user is being provided points andbenefits without having to modify the user's behavior. For example, theuser may be provided compensation (e.g., earning 5 points or 5 cents foreach item of content/message of a content provider included in theuser's messages and sent via the user's device(s)).

The user may redeem the points earned (e.g., for product or services,such as electronic gift cards, direct cash withdrawals, charitydonations, school tuition, etc.). Optionally, the system may then (e.g.,after the user has redeemed points for a threshold number of items)prompt the user to provide additional information such as the user'sage, the user's gender, where the user lives, if the user is in school,what the user is studying in school, what grade the user is in, if theuser is at work, what jobs the user performs, the user's income or anincome range (e.g., on an annual basis), the types of products andservices that the user usually purchases, the types of products andservices the user would like to purchase within a specified time frame(e.g., the next several months), and/or other information, such asinformation that the user ordinarily would not provide unless given anincentive.

The mobile communication application program may then automaticallymatch the user with the specific companies and brands that advertiseproducts or services that will be of most interest for acquisition bythe specific user based upon the specific user information as above.Additional questions may be asked of the user, perhaps of a morepersonal nature, in order to enable the user to provide more detailedinformation (e.g., the income earned by the user, the age of the user,the religion of the user; if the user is going to school, where the useris going to school, what the user is studying, whether the user hasgraduated from school, where the user is working; the nature of theuser's employment; the user's interests, the user's hobbies and whatproducts and services the user has acquired within a specified timeperiod (e.g., the past year) and/or other information).

Another example process will now be described. In this example, the userwill receive the content/message as selected by a third party or othercontent provider (e.g., based on the user's demographic informationand/or other user information) that will be embedded in a text messagebeing composed on the user's device. The phrase “text message” mayinclude SMS text messaging where the message is transmitted wirelesslythrough an SMS text messaging infrastructure or text messaging whichuses a wireless carrier that the individual is using for communicatingmessages.

The content provider message/content may then be selected based at leastin party upon the text message sent from the user's device to anotherdevice (e.g., a portable electronic device) having the applicationsoftware downloaded or otherwise installed thereon. Third partymessage/content may be embedded periodically in the user's messages(e.g., every message, every other message, every third message, everyfourth message, every fifth message, during selected time periods, or inany other selected sub-group of text messages to be sent by the user toa destination). If the text message is displayed via the user and/orrecipient device, such display occurrence may be recorded in a computerdatabase, thereby indicating that the user used the text message withthe third party message/content a given number of times a given day.

The communication application may access the third party message/contentand transform third party message/content into a transmittablemessage/content so that the third party message/content can be embeddedinto a text message as described above, and transmitted by the user (whodownloaded the communication application on the user's device) to areceiver optionally having the communication application installedthereon. The messages with the embedded third party message/content maybe transmitted according specified criteria (e.g., at specific selectedtime periods, each text message, every other text message, etc.). Thus,a message between two user device may be used to interject a message orother content from a third party.

In an example scenario, a user sends a text message to a friend via theuser's device (e.g., a mobile device such as a cell phone, with thesoftware communication application installed thereon). If the same usersends the same text or a comparable text to the friend, the mobilecommunication application is programmed so that after a given number oftext messages, whether it be every single one, every other one, everythird one, every fourth one, every fifth one etc., at the end of thetext message, a specific selected third party message/content item willappear. Optionally, the content will appear immediately below theselected number of text messages within the same framework as the usermessage text. The framework may be any shape (e.g., such as a bubble,star, rectangle, or other shape or size). Optionally, the framework willbe a bubble so that the specific text message that triggers the thirdparty message/content will appear within the same bubble as the textmessage and immediately beneath the text message. Optionally, the textmessages and the third party message/content immediately below may bedisplayed in a running series without a framework around it (e.g.,“Drink Soda” or “Eat Pizza” or “Buy Ice Cream”). In this way, the personsending or receiving the message will see the third partymessage/content.

Thus, a content provider is enabled to place directed messages/contentdirectly to a subset of users who are more likely to be users of aspecific product or service offered by the content provider. Further,such directed content/message is provided directly and personally to anindividual user as opposed to an overall multimedia platform, such as atelevision show, radio show or a billboard sign. The third partymessage/content is transformed from a general third partymessage/content to an embedded third party message/content containedwithin the mobile communication application and embedded so that themessage/content appears on a screen when the user of the user devicesends a text message or other communication to another user. Throughthis transformation, the third party message/content may appear on ascreen of a personal electronic device (e.g., a cell phone, tabletcomputer, wearable device, laptop, etc.) where the user will be lookingdirectly at the screen since the user is reading the text message andtherefore will also be viewing the third party message/content.

In addition, the user is motivated to transmit text messages with thirdparty content because the user optionally will be receiving tokens(e.g., reward points) which the user can redeem for products, services,currency, etc., such as for products or services depicted or discussedin the content/message provided by the third party, where the thirdparty may be a provider of such product/service.

Improvements may be provided to even better enhance the effectiveness ofthe communication application. As similarly, discussed elsewhere herein,among the information requested and downloaded from the user to helpbetter select and direct the appropriate third party message/content tothe user may include some or all of the following: an email address, apassword that is personal to the user so only that user can access theuser's account record (which may include account information such as howmany points that user has earned, providing further motivation tocontinue to use services described herein) and demographic data (e.g.,gender, the country where the user is located, the user's physicaladdress or a portion thereof (e.g., zip code), or other user locationinformation (e.g., geolocation data obtain from a GPS radio, cell towertriangulation, Wi-Fi data, and/or the like)).

Optionally, the communication application will automatically match theuser and cell phone or other portable electronic device of the user withthe companies and brands that are utilizing the present apparatus andmethods in order to match as closely as possible the type of productsand services that the company provides with the user to whom the thirdparty messages/content about those products and services are directed.

To obtain even more detailed information so that the match may be evenmore precise, the user may be provided with additional bonus points ortokens if the user is willing to provide additional information such asage, whether the user is in school, what grade the user is in, and whatthe user studying; if the user is working, where the user is employed,the user's income, family members, household family members, familymembers the user is not living with, the nature and type ofentertainment that the user enjoys (e.g., cable, streaming video, moviesin theaters, plays, etc.).

Further, the user may be provided an opportunity to choose the types ofcontent/messages that the user wishes to receive (where the products orservices provided by the content provider are of a particular interestto that user).

The user may also be provided with information to enable the user tochange/edit the demographic information provided, assign additional cellor other phone numbers to the user's account so that if the user hasmore than one electronic device, the user may benefit from theutilization of the communication services described herein on severaldevices. The content provider may also be provided with informationconcerning how effective the content provider's content/message is andtherefore, may have the opportunity to change the nature of thecontent/message to better improve the content/message effectiveness(e.g., in encouraging the user to utilize the content and obtainproducts or services discussed and/or depicted in the content/message).The content provider may also be provided the opportunity to modify theproducts that are provided to the user based upon the points earned bythe user.

As the user becomes more comfortable with the communication application,the user may be prompted to provide still more detailed informationabout the user (e.g., in exchange for additional points or tokens or toreceive content/messages more closely targeted to the user's interests).The content provider may also be provided the opportunity to obtainfurther statistical data so that specific content for products orservices that a user has demonstrated a great interest in acquiring maybe run more frequently on that user's device.

In addition, the system may determine the times of the day and days ofthe week when a user most frequently used the communication application,how the communication application is used (e.g., to send text messaging,to access the user's account, to receive messages, etc.), and whetherthe user also generated more sales leads through providing theinformation to the user's friends, relatives, etc. who also thensubsequently obtained the communication application (e.g., to utilizeand receive the benefits of the services described herein).

The compensation to be allocated between the provider of the mobilecommunication application and the user may be adjusted periodically.

As discussed herein certain optional transformations may include one ormore of the following:

1. The downloadable communication application may transform an ordinarytext message into a source of third party content/messages.

2. The downloadable communication application transforms the way thirdparty messages/content is directed to a specific focus group of users,such as users who are motivated to view such third partymessages/content because the third party messages/content is presentedtogether with text messages the user is entering from text messagesreceived by the user from user contacts (e.g., friends, businesscontacts, etc.).

3. The person receiving the text message may be a registered user withthe real-time messaging platform but does not have to be a registereduser. If the person receiving the text message is a registered user,then the registered receiving person may also send text messages, andafter a specified number of text messages are sent (e.g., 1 message, 2messages, 5 messages, or other specified number of messages) may receivea reward (e.g., points/tokens) as described above. The registeredreceiving user may also have the same limitations on the number of textmessages that may be sent to the same person for rewards (limited over acertain period of time), so there are no more than a specified number ofmessages (e.g., two text messages) sent over a specified time period(e.g., a twenty-four hour period) to the same person which are entitledto a reward. In addition, the receiving person may be non-registered sothat receiving person may be able to receive the text message but cannotresend it either to the user or to a third party as a registeredreceiving person could do.

FIG. 8 illustrates example user interfaces depicting user points. Theuser interfaces may utilize animation to depict points being added to auser's current points. For example, FIG. 8(a) illustrates a currentpoint balance. FIG. 8(b) illustrates an icon (e.g., coins) floating orotherwise moving to the current point balance to indicate that pointsare being added to the user's existing points. FIG. 8(c) illustrates anew point balance present after the animation is concluded. Theanimation advantageously clearly depicts to the user the new earnedpoints, without having to occupy display space on a non-transient basis.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example user interface that may be presented onthe user device that efficiently displays both the user's contactdatabase (from which a user may select contact to which a message is tobe addressed to) and user points. This approach reduces the need tonavigate to multiple user interfaces to select message addressees andview the user's points.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example user interface that may be presented onthe user device that efficiently displays both communication groupsdefined by the user and user points. As similarly discussed above withrespect to claim 9, this approach reduces the need to navigate tomultiple user interfaces to select message addressees and view theuser's points.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example user interface that may be presented onthe user device that enables a user to define a communication group. Forexample, the user may define a communication group by selecting (e.g.,clicking on) contacts accessed from the user's contact data store. Aninterface is provided that enables the user to assign a name and/orimage (e.g., a photograph or illustration) to the communication group.

A user may view chats/communication sessions by selecting a chat from alist of chats displayed in association with the corresponding chatparticipants (e.g., other users or communication groups). FIG. 12illustrates an example user interface that may be presented on the userdevice that efficiently displays both selected chats and user points.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example user interface that may be presented onthe user device that efficiently displays both user points and items(e.g., gift cards 5.2, digital content (e.g., games, videos, music,etc.), monetary rewards 5.3) which may be acquired by the user byapplying corresponding user points. Optionally, rather than listing theavailable rewards, the user interface may include text/imagescorresponding to reward categories, which may then be selected. Inresponse to the user selecting a category, the actual available rewardsmay be presented. This technique provides easier-to-use interfaces, andreduces the amount of scrolling to access a given reward entry. The userinterface may also include controls via which the user can access thechat user interface, the contacts user interface, the groups definitionuser interface, and/or other user interfaces.

Once the user applies points, the user may be asked to confirm theapplication prior to the actual application of the points to the reward.

Optionally, a user interface is provided via which the user candesignate a recipient of a given reward. The reward may then beelectronic transmitted to the designated recipient.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example chat conversation between two people viaa chat user interface presented on a user device via the communicationapplication. In this example, a third party message (including graphicsand text) is inserted into the second message from the user of the userdevice. The chat text indicates that the user of the user device isgoing on a trip to Miami, Fla. The real-time messaging platform, basedon an analysis of the chat text (using techniques described elsewhereherein), determines that a weather report message for Miami from aweather server is an appropriate third party message to insert into theuser's second message, and causes the weather report message to beinserted into the user's second message (via the communicationapplication hosted on the user device). In addition, the number of userpoints assigned to the user is presented in conjunction with the chatconversation, and may be updated in real time once the message with thethird party content is sent or is received by the message recipientdevice.

Optionally, data discussed herein may be acquired and calculated andtabulated in order to perform various permutations and calculations todetermine improvements to the operation of the example processesdescribed herein (e.g., which include particular companies or industriesthat benefit from these types of messages/content), determine thecontent message that is most effective, and/or determine the number ofmessages/content items sent and whether they were sent at specific timesof the day and/or on specific days. In addition, messages/content itemsof one kind or another may have a different effect on users if they arein different countries or in different locations within a particularcompany which may also be factored into the messages/content items thatare provided to that particular sub-group of persons depending upon thenumerous variables about that person that are obtained and continuouslyupdated.

In order to avoid fraud or other misuse (which may be attempts toimproperly obtain rewards, such as those discussed herein), the user mayagree to various terms and conditions as part of the opportunity toutilize the communication application and services described herein.Examples include, but are not limited to, a user being instructed tosend only a limited number of messages over a given period of time(e.g., not more than two messages a day). For example, a user may onlybe permitted to send a text message to another person for a specificlimited number of times over a specific period of time, for example suchas no more than two text messages within any twenty-four hour period.The user may also be prevented from sending a third partymessage/content item with a text message unless a certain thresholdnumber of text messages have been sent by the user within a period oftime (e.g., ten text messages received or sent in 72 hours). If the userviolates these rules, a warning notification may be automaticallygenerated and provided to the user. If the user continues to violate therules after a selected period of time (e.g., (one or two days), then theuser's communication application may be disabled to prevent further textmessages from being sent by the communication application.

An example process generates an account warning notification andprovides the notification to a content provider in response to detectingthat an account balance has fallen below a specified threshold. Forexample, the notification may indicate that the content provider needsto maintain a specified minimum account balance (e.g., to providecompensation for the provider's content that has been inserted into usermessages) and advise the content provider if the balance has fallenbelow a certain amount or percentage of a specified funding level. Thesystem may provide the webmaster and system operator with theopportunity to postpone the insertion of a content provider's contentinto user messages in response to detecting that the content provider'sbalance is less than a certain amount. If the content provider continuesto violate certain rules, then the content provider's content may be nolonger be inserted into user messages, and the content may be deletedfrom cache and other system memory.

Thus, disclosed herein are systems and methods that facilitate theinsertion of third party message/content into messages between two ormore users without revealing to the third party the identities of thetwo or more users in a manner transparent to the two or more parties.Content providers are also enabled to direct messages/content items togroups of users that may be most or relatively more interested in suchmessages/content items.

Various methods and systems for embedding content and messages into auser's message, that may be utilized with methods and systems disclosedherein, are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/148,846,the content of which is incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

Terminology

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without userinput or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps areincluded or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout thedescription and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and thelike are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to anexclusive or exhaustive sense, i.e., in the sense of “including, but notlimited to.” As used herein, the terms “connected,” “coupled,” or anyvariant thereof means any connection or coupling, either direct orindirect, between two or more elements; the coupling or connectionbetween the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof.Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similarimport, when used in this application, refer to this application as awhole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where thecontext permits, words using the singular or plural number may alsoinclude the plural or singular number respectively. The word “or” inreference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the followinginterpretations of the word: any one of the items in the list, all ofthe items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.Likewise the term “and/or” in reference to a list of two or more items,covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any one of theitems in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination ofthe items in the list.

In some embodiments, certain operations, acts, events, or functions ofany of the algorithms described herein can be performed in a differentsequence, can be added, merged, or left out altogether (e.g., not allare necessary for the practice of the algorithms). In certainembodiments, operations, acts, functions, or events can be performedconcurrently, e.g., through multi-threaded processing, interruptprocessing, or multiple processors or processor cores or on otherparallel architectures, rather than sequentially.

Systems and modules described herein may comprise software, firmware,hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or hardwaresuitable for the purposes described. Software and other modules mayreside and execute on servers, workstations, personal computers,computerized tablets, PDAs, and other computing devices suitable for thepurposes described herein. Software and other modules may be accessiblevia local computer memory, via a network, via a browser, or via othermeans suitable for the purposes described herein. Data structuresdescribed herein may comprise computer files, variables, programmingarrays, programming structures, or any electronic information storageschemes or methods, or any combinations thereof, suitable for thepurposes described herein. User interface elements described herein maycomprise elements from graphical user interfaces, interactive voiceresponse, command line interfaces, and other suitable interfaces.Further, processing of the various components of the illustrated systemscan be distributed across multiple machines, networks, and othercomputing resources, or may comprise a standalone system. Two or morecomponents of a system can be combined into fewer components. Variouscomponents of the illustrated systems can be implemented in one or morevirtual machines, rather than in dedicated computer hardware systemsand/or computing devices. Likewise, the data repositories shown canrepresent physical and/or logical data storage, including, e.g., storagearea networks or other distributed storage systems. Moreover, in someembodiments the connections between the components shown representpossible paths of data flow, rather than actual connections betweenhardware. While some examples of possible connections are shown, any ofthe subset of the components shown can communicate with any other subsetof components in various implementations.

Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products. Each block of the flow chart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flow chartillustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computerprogram instructions. Such instructions may be provided to a processorof a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,specially-equipped computer (e.g., comprising a high-performancedatabase server, a graphics subsystem, etc.) or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor(s) of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing the actsspecified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks. Thesecomputer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to operate in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded to a computing device or other programmable data processingapparatus to cause operations to be performed on the computing device orother programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented processsuch that the instructions which execute on the computing device orother programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the actsspecified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While the phrase “click” may be used with respect to a user selecting acontrol, menu selection, or the like, other user inputs may be used,such as voice commands, text entry, gestures, etc. User inputs may, byway of example, be provided via an interface, such as via text fields,wherein a user enters text, and/or via a menu selection (e.g., a dropdown menu, a list or other arrangement via which the user can check viaa check box or otherwise make a selection or selections, a group ofindividually selectable icons, etc.). When the user provides an input oractivates a control, a corresponding computing system may perform thecorresponding operation. Some or all of the data, inputs andinstructions provided by a user may optionally be stored in a systemdata store (e.g., a database), from which the system may access andretrieve such data, inputs, and instructions. The notifications and userinterfaces described herein may be provided via a Web page, a dedicatedor non-dedicated phone application, computer application, a shortmessaging service message (e.g., SMS, MMS, etc.), instant messaging,email, push notification, audibly, and/or otherwise.

The user terminals, devices, and systems described herein may be in theform of a mobile communication device (e.g., a cell phone), laptop,tablet computer, interactive television, game console, media streamingdevice, head-wearable display, networked watch, etc. The user terminals,devices, and systems may optionally include displays, user input devices(e.g., touchscreen, keyboard, mouse, voice recognition, etc.), networkinterfaces, etc.

Any patents and applications and other references noted above, includingany that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporatedherein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, ifnecessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the variousreferences described above to provide yet further implementations of theinvention. These and other changes can be made to the invention in lightof the above Detailed Description. While the above description describescertain examples of the invention, and describes the best modecontemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, theinvention can be practiced in many ways. Details of the system may varyconsiderably in its specific implementation, while still beingencompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above,particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology isassociated. In general, the terms used in the following claims shouldnot be construed to limit the invention to the specific examplesdisclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Descriptionsection explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope ofthe invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also allequivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under theclaims.

To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the invention arepresented below in certain claim forms, but the applicant contemplatesother aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Any claimsintended to be treated under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) will begin with thewords “means for,” but use of the term “for” in any other context is notintended to invoke treatment under 35 U.S.C. § 112(f). Accordingly, theapplicant reserves the right to pursue additional claims after filingthis application, in either this application or in a continuingapplication.

What is claimed is:
 1. A communication system comprising: a network interface; at least one computing device; a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by the at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising: receiving over the network interface from a communication application installed on a first communication device of a first user: an identifier associated with the first user and/or an identifier associated with the communication application installed on the first communication device; an indication that a messaging service message composed by the first user is being directed to a first electronic destination address associated with a second user; using an identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the first user, wherein the identified keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the first user are associated with respective weightings, and based at least in part on: the identification of keywords in the messaging service message composed by the first user and associated keyword weightings for the identified keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the first user, and using a message transmission history of the first user: enabling selection of a message of a first entity; causing the selected message of the first entity to: be displayed by the communication application installed on the first communication device of the first user in association with the messaging service message composed by the first user; and included in the messaging service message when the messaging service message is transmitted from the first user to the first electronic destination address without traversing the communication system to the second user, wherein the first entity does not receive an identity of the first user or the second user.
 2. The communication system as defined in claim 1, wherein the selection of the message of the first entity is performed using a message transmission history of the first user that indicates how many messaging service messages have been transmitted by the first user, wherein the operations further comprise enabling the message of the first entity to be displayed communication application installed on the first communication device of the first user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the first user at least partly in response to determining that at least a first threshold number of messaging service messages have been transmitted by the first user using the communication application since a third party message has been included in a messaging service message transmitted by the communication application.
 3. The communication system as defined in claim 1, the operations further comprising causing the selected message of the first entity to be displayed by the communication application installed on the first communication device of the first user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the first user, the message framework having a shape selected from a plurality of message framework shapes.
 4. The communication system as defined in claim 1, the operations further comprising enabling the selected message of the first entity to be displayed by the communication application installed on the first communication device of the first user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the first user, wherein the message of the first entity to be displayed within the message framework below the messaging service message composed by the first user, with a visual delimiter contained within the message framework that visually distinguishes the message of the first entity from the messaging service message composed by the first user.
 5. The communication system as defined in claim 1, wherein enabling selection of a message of a first entity further comprises the operations of comparing keywords included in the messaging service message with metadata associated with messages of one or more entities and identifying one or more messages of the one or more entities that have metadata that correspond to the keywords included in the messaging service message.
 6. The communication system as defined in claim 1, the operations further comprising: receiving over the network interface from a communication application installed on a communication device of a third user: an identifier associated with the third user and/or an identifier associated with the communication application installed on the communication device of the third device; an indication that a messaging service message composed by the third user is being directed to an electronic destination associated with a fourth user; an identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the third user; an identification of the fourth user; determining, using the identification of the fourth user, that the fourth user has the communication application installed on a communication device associated with the further; accessing a record associated with the third user using the identifier associated with the third user and/or the identifier associated with the communication application installed on the third user communication device; accessing a record associated with the fourth user using the identification of the fourth user, the record associated with the fourth user comprising demographic and/or preference data; based at least in part on the identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the third user and on a message transmission history of the third user, enabling selection of a message of a second entity; based at least in part on the identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the third user and data included in the record associated with the fourth user, enabling selection of a message of a third entity causing the selected message of the second entity to: be displayed by the communication application installed on the communication device of the third user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the third user; causing the selected message of the third entity to: be displayed by the communication application installed on the communication device of the fourth user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the third user.
 7. The communication system as defined in claim 1, wherein a record associated with the first user further comprises location data, the operations further comprising: selecting the message of the first entity based in part on the location data.
 8. The communication system as defined in claim 1, wherein the communication system is inhibited from receiving proper names, addresses, and phone numbers included in the messaging service message.
 9. The communication system as defined in claim 1, the operations further comprising: updating a keyword dictionary stored on the first communication device is out of date with a set of keywords stored remote from the first communication device.
 10. The communication system as defined in claim 1, wherein the selected message of the first entity comprises a photographic image, graphic content, and/or video content.
 11. The communication system as defined in claim 1, wherein the selected message of the first entity comprises visual content associated with a network resource locator, wherein selection of the visual content by the first user or the second user, causes a resource to be accessed using the network resource locator.
 12. A computer implemented method of modifying a messaging service message, comprising: receiving at a mobile device of a first user, via an instantiation of a first application installed on the mobile device of the first user, content provided by a content provider; detecting that the first user has instructed the first application installed on the mobile device of the first user to transmit a first messaging service message to a device of a second user associated with corresponding second user identification information, the first messaging service message including a message comprising text entered by the first user, wherein the message comprising text entered by the first user does not include the content from the content provider; at least partly based on an identification of keywords present in the first messaging service message and associated keyword weightings for the identified keywords present in the first messaging service message composed by the first user, and a message transmission history of the first user; causing, at least in part, the first messaging service message to automatically include the content from the content provider with the message entered by the first user; and causing at least in part, the content from the content provider to be displayed in association with the message entered by the first user when displayed on the device of the second user without providing the content provider with the corresponding second user identification information.
 13. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 12, wherein the first messaging service message is an SMS message or MMS message.
 14. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 12, the method further comprising causing the content provided by the content provider to be displayed on the device of the second user within a message framework that also frames the message entered by the first user.
 15. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 12, the method further comprising: tracking a number of items of content provided by one or more content providers that are transmitted via messaging service messages from the mobile device of the first user; and generating a report indicating the number of items of content provided by one or more content providers that are transmitted via messaging service messages from the mobile device of the first user.
 16. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 12, the method further comprising: tracking a number of items of content provided by one or more content providers that are transmitted via messaging service messages from the mobile device of the first user within a first period of time; determining whether the number of items of content provided by one or more content providers that are transmitted via messaging service messages from the mobile device of the first user within the first period of time at least meets a first threshold; and at least partly in response to determining that the number of items of content provided by one or more content providers that are transmitted via messaging service messages from the mobile device of the first user within the first period of time at least meets a first threshold, inhibiting content from one or more content providers from being included in messaging service messages from the mobile device of the first user for a second period of time.
 17. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 12, the method further comprising, causing the content from the content provider to be displayed on the device of the second user adjacent to, and below the message entered by the first user.
 18. The computer implemented method as defined in claim 12, the method further comprising, causing, at least in part, a graphic separator to be displayed visually separating the content from the content provider from the message entered by the first user when displayed on the device of the second user.
 19. A system comprising: a network interface; at least one computing device; a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by the at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising: receiving over the network interface from a communication application installed on a first communication device of a first user: a first identifier; an indication that the first user has activated a message transmit control to cause a messaging service message composed by the first user to be transmitted to a first electronic destination associated with a second user associated with corresponding second user identification information; an identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the first user; based at least in part on the identification of keywords present by the communication application installed on the first communication device of a first user in the messaging service message composed by the first user and associated keyword weightings for the identified keywords present in the first messaging service message composed by the first user enabling selection of a message of a first entity and on a message transmission history of the first user; enabling the selected message of the first entity to: be displayed by the communication application installed on the first communication device of the first user together with the messaging service message composed by the first user, and be included in the messaging service message when the messaging service message is transmitted to the second user without providing the first entity with the corresponding second user identification information.
 20. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein a record associated with the first user indicates how many messaging service messages have been transmitted by the first user using the communication application since a third party message has been included in a messaging service message transmitted by the communication application, wherein the operations further comprise enabling the message of the first entity to be displayed communication application installed on the first communication device of the first user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the first user at least partly in response to determining that at least a first threshold number of messaging service messages have been transmitted by the first user using the communication application since a third party message has been included in a messaging service message transmitted by the communication application.
 21. The system as defined in claim 19, the operations further comprising: causing the selected message of the first entity to be displayed by the communication application installed on the first communication device of the first user within a graphic message framework together with the messaging service message composed by the first user.
 22. The system as defined in claim 19, the operations further comprising enabling the message of the first entity to be displayed within a message framework together with and below the messaging service message composed by the first user, with a visual delimiter contained within the message framework that visually distinguishes the message of the first entity from the messaging service message composed by the first user.
 23. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein enabling selection of a message of a first entity further comprises the operations of comparing keywords included in the messaging service message with metadata associated with messages of one or more entities and identifying one or more messages of the one or more entities that have metadata that correspond to the keywords included in the messaging service message.
 24. The system as defined in claim 19, the operations further comprising: receiving over the network interface from a communication application installed on a communication device of a third user: an identifier associated with the third user and/or an identifier associated with the communication application installed on the communication device of the third device; an indication that a messaging service message composed by the third user is being directed to an electronic destination associated with a fourth user; an identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the third user; an identification of the fourth user; determining, using the identification of the fourth user, that the fourth user has the communication application installed on a communication device associated with the further; accessing a record associated with the third user using the identifier associated with the third user and/or the identifier associated with the communication application installed on the third user communication device; accessing a record associated with the fourth user using the identification of the fourth user, the record associated with the fourth user comprising demographic and/or preference data; based at least in part on the identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the third user and on a message transmission history of the third user, enabling selection of a message of a second entity; based at least in part on the identification of keywords present in the messaging service message composed by the third user and data included in the record associated with the fourth user, enabling selection of a message of a third entity causing the selected message of the second entity to: be displayed by the communication application installed on the communication device of the third user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the third user; causing the selected message of the third entity to: be displayed by the communication application installed on the communication device of the fourth user within a message framework that also frames the messaging service message composed by the third user.
 25. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein a record associated with the first user further comprises location data, the operations further comprising: selecting the message of the first entity based in part on the location data.
 26. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the system is inhibited from receiving proper names, addresses, and phone numbers included in the messaging service message.
 27. The system as defined in claim 19, the operations further comprising: detecting that a keyword dictionary stored on the first communication device is out of date; and based at least in part on detecting that a keyword dictionary stored on the first communication device is out of date, synchronizing the keyword dictionary stored on the first communication device is out of date with a set of keywords stored on the system.
 28. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the selected message of the first entity comprises a photographic image, graphic content, and/or video content.
 29. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the selected message of the first entity comprises visual content associated with a network resource locator, wherein selection of the visual content by the first user or the second user, causes a resource to be accessed using the network resource locator. 